New Delhi: It took India three sessions and little less than 100 overs to bowl out West Indies in the first Test match of the series at Rajkot and thus script an emphatic win by an innings and 272 runs. Windies failed to reach India's massive target of 649 runs in two innings with 14 wickets falling in two sessions and six more in the third. And the star bowler for India was Kuldeep Yadav, who bagged his maiden five-wicket haul in Tests and hence scripted his own set of record. After the match, he sketched his path from Lord's debacle to his remarkable feat on Saturday.

Kuldeep was considered Test ready for England when India had selected their squad for the anticipated series. He was finally given a place in the playing XI but unfortunately on a pitch that highly favoured the seamers. His relentless efforts to scalp at least one, went in vain as Kuldeep returned wicketless at the Lord's. Kuldeep was eventually dropped and sent back home for the final two Tests. While criticisms flowed in from all corners against playing Kuldeep, India did accept their mistake.

"After coming back from England, I went to my coach at home, bowled with the red ball for three to four days. It was difficult because after playing white ball format you lose rhythm with the red ball. I mainly focused on the release of the red ball, bowling slower as you tend to bowl faster with white-ball," Kuldeep recollected in the post-match presser.

Kuldeep next played for India A against Australia at home with the red-ball, before returning to the Indian squad for the Asia Cup campaign where he did manage to fair well. However, Kuldeep did mention the immense difficulty that he faces as a wrist spinner in switching from red ball to white-ball cricket. "It is very difficult to switch to red ball from white ball and vice versa, especially for a wrist spinner. It is challenging because you take time to get used to it. White ball is on the harder side, grips better. Red ball wears down faster, gets soft," Kuldeep explained.

Kuldeep, who finished with figures of 5 for 57 in the second innings to become the first Indian chinaman to pick up a fi-fer and second Indian bowler to achieve the milestone all formats of the game, elaborated on his failure in England at Lord's. He said, "In England, I was thinking bowling good length but that time I was not much used to the Duke ball. The Duke red ball is harder than the SG so you need probably 10-15 days to get used to the ball."